Moped Madness

Chris and I took a trip to Beijing with our daughters in 2004. Before we embarked on our journey north, fellow travelers warned us about the insane traffic we were going to experience there. True, we had read about the hours-long commuting, the all-day rush hour, the crawling traffic that stretched for miles and miles throughout the city. In fact, we had even heard rumors there were over 19 million bicycles on the streets at that time, a seemingly infeasible statistic, given that it was more than the population of the city!

Certainly, these reports had to be grossly exaggerated. We were from NYC, after all - how bad could it be? Suffice to say, nothing could have prepared us for what we saw!

Yes, there was traffic, very close to as advertised. But it was the bicycles that shocked us - they were everywhere! They outnumbered the cars at that time by at least three to one! Every citizen, it appeared, was commuting to wherever he or she was going - by bike! Men, women, boys, girls, young or old - riders at every level of expertise - were making their way through the overcrowded streets, undeterred by the crush of automobiles and motorcycles pushing past them.

There were no wimpy helmets on these riders, not a girlie kneepad in sight, and not one had a fancy 10-speed hill-climbing gadget on his handlebars; these were commuter bikes: bare to the bone, no frills, practical down to the last bolt. These bikes were the family vehicle, and every family, it seemed, owned at least two!

There were babies clamped between their mothers' knees, school children hitched to back bumpers, young girls in high heels and short skirts sitting with their legs neatly crossed on the rear bike rack, a family of three riding together on one bike - dad steering, mom riding behind and a young child in between.

But that was in 2004. Today, as China's economy booms, standard bicycles are quickly being replaced or squeezed off the roads by a battalion of reasonably priced scooters, mopeds and delivery boys using electric bikes.

This sidewalk parking lot stretching to the horizon is but one of many around Zhongshan's shopping centers. The incessant need to keep up with the pace of modern-day China has led Chinese commuters to abandon their old two-wheel pedaled friends, so they can make better headway in the fast-paced world of moped madness!